Sunday, December 10, 2017

The Irish Naval Service Roisin-class patrol vessel LE Niamh (P 52) has sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this morning on a courtesy visit. This is her third call in Valletta Port this year. The Irish patrol vessel is presently berthing alongside at Pinto-3 wharf and she's expected to sail from Valletta Port on Wednesday, Dec. 13th. (10-Dec-2017)

Saturday, December 9, 2017

Jet
Aviation has launched a new flight operation in Malta after securing its air
operator's certificate (AOC) for the island. The company is already
operating a B737 BBJ under the Malta AOC, and expects to add a Legacy 600 in
the coming weeks. It now has regional AOC
operations in Malta, Switzerland (Zurich) and Germany (Cologne).

"Our new flight operation
in Malta is a terrific complement to our Swiss and German operations," said
J. Reuthinger, senior vice president and general manager of Jet Aviation's
aircraft management and charter operations in EMEA and Asia. "The additional
AOC in the European Union allows aircraft owners and operators more flexibility
in their choice of registrations and operation." (Source: corporatejetinvestor.com, 8-Dec-2017)

Friday, December 8, 2017

The United States Navy destroyer USS Carney (DDG 64) sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this morning on a courtesy visit. USS Carney is the 14th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the U.S. Navy. The ship is the first to be named after Admiral Robert Carney who served as Chief of Naval Operations during the Eisenhower administration. She was commissioned in service on 8-Jun-1996.The U.S. destroyer is presently berthing alongside at Pinto-1 wharf and she's expected to sail from Valletta Port on Wednesday, Dec. 12th (8-Dec-2017)

Malta
International Airport continued to register solid traffic results, even as it
entered its winter period, with November becoming the fourteenth consecutive
month to achieve double-digit growth in passenger movements.

Last
November, the airport hosted over 55,000 passengers more than it did in 2016,
closing off the month with a total of 405,724 movements. This translates into
an increase of 15.8 per cent over last year.

This
record number of passengers for November was observed in parallel with an
increase of 18.1% in aircraft movements and a 19.2% improvement
in seat capacity. Seat load factor for November, which marks airlines' ability to fill available seats on flights, dropped slightly and stood at 79%.

The
month's top five markets accounted for more than half of the total passenger
movements for November. The U.K. continued to top the leader board
with over 100,000 passenger movements, followed by Italy, Germany, France, and
Belgium. While the first four markets all registered varying levels of growth,
Belgium lost around 570 passenger movements when compared with 2016.The
biggest spike in passenger numbers in November was observed on the Polish
market, which grew by 76.3% over last year. This strong increase can be
attributed to added flights on the Gdansk, Krakow and Wroclaw routes. Other
markets which registered noteworthy growth stemming from improved flight
schedules and additional capacity, include Turkey, Austria and the Netherlands. (Source: maltairport.com, 7-Dec-2017)

Sunday, December 3, 2017

The French Navy D'Estienne d'Orves-class corvette FS Premier-Maitre L'Her (F 792) sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this morning on a courtesy visit. This is her fourth visit in Valletta Port this year. The French corvette is presently berthing alongside at Pinto-5 wharf and she's expected to sail from Valletta Port on Thursday, Dec. 7th (3-Dec-2017)

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Fincantieri
delivered Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPv) P61 to the Armed Forces of Malta, following
upgrading activities carried out at the Group's dry-docking facility within the
Port of Genoa.

The aim of the works,
which lasted about six months, was to improve the reaction capability of the
vessel. The upgrade included the installation of a new main propulsion plant,
other machinery and equipment as well as the overhaul of most of the ship’s on board
systems.

OPV P61 is over 53m long and was built and delivered by Fincantieri's shipyard of Muggiano to the Armed Forces of Malta in 2005. It is a modified
variant of the Diciotti-Class patrol boat, built by Fincantieri for the
Italian Coast Guard.The upgrading project was
co-financed by the European Union Internal Security Fund. (Source: Fincantieri, 27-Nov-2017)

Saturday, November 25, 2017

An
agreement has been reached between Mediterranean Aviation Co. Ltd (Medavia) and
Air Nostrum for Air Nostrum to acquire 51% shareholding in Mediterranean
Aviation Operations Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of Medavia which holds the air operator’s certificate.

This agreement does not affect in any way Medavia assets, including employees and
aircraft but provides an opportunity for the creation of new business for both
shareholding companies.Air
Nostrum is a Spanish regional carrier operating flights within EU and through
this acquisition will cover new geographical areas. The same opportunity for
Medavia to increase its flights within the EU through its regional charters is
further strengthened. (Source: Medavia, 24-Nov-2017)

Friday, November 24, 2017

As from Nov. 28th, Maltese company Small Fly Co. Ltd will
start operating a cargo flight between Lamezia-Terme (Italy) and Malta International
Airport twice a week.

Flights (operated with ATR-72F) will be arriving at Malta IAP at 5:55 a.m.
and departing to Lamezia Terme Airport at 6:55 a.m., with interconnections to
and from Milan-Linate and Rome-Fiumicino airports.

This new flight is only the early stage of a broader
project contemplating to expand the Small Fly cargo activities all over Europe,
aiming at five cargo flights a week between Italy and Malta, since the beginning
of 2018. (Source: Small Fly, 23-Nov-2017)

Thursday, November 23, 2017

An Emirates Boeing B777-300ER (A6-EGE), performing flight EK-220 between Orlando IAP (U.S.A.) and Dubia IAP (U.A.E.), had to divert to Malta Int'l Airport this morning due to a medical emergency on board. The B77W continued with its flight to Dubai after 3-hrs and 40-mins on the ground. (23-Nov-2017)

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

The French Navy D'Estienne d'Orves-class corvette FS Premier-Maitre L'Her (F 792) sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this morning on a courtesy visit. This is her third visit in Valletta Port this year. The French corvette is presently berthing alongside at Pinto-3 wharf and she's expected to sail from Valletta Port on Saturday, Nov. 25th (22-Nov-2017)

Monday, November 20, 2017

An Air
Malta flight from Frankfurt scheduled for yesterday evening never took off
after the aircraft was grounded due to technical problems. KM-329 was due to leave Frankfurt airport at 2010lt, but ran into technical
trouble and required repairs. Engineers were unable to fix the problem by the
time the airport closed at 2300lt, forcing passengers to spend an extra night in
Germany.

Passengers
and cabin crew spent the night in nearby hotels courtesy of the airline and
were offered dinner, an Air Malta spokesman said. Repair
work resumed early this morning and the flight is expected to leave after the aircraft successfully completes a series of engine
runs.

Air
Malta apologised for the inconvenience due to circumstances beyond its control,
saying that it gave the utmost importance to the safety of its passengers and
staff. (Source: timesofmalta.com, 20-Nov-2017)

Saturday, November 18, 2017

The U.K. Royal Navy Duke-class frigate HMS Monmouth (F 235) has sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this morning on a courtesy visit. The British frigate is presently berthing alongside at Pinto-3 wharf and she has on board an AgustaWestland AW-159 Wildcat HMA.2 helicopter (ZZ533). HMS Monmouth is expected to sail from Valletta Port on Tuesday, Nov. 21st. (18-Nov-2017)

The U.K. Royal Navy Echo-class survey vessel HMS Echo (H 87) has sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this afternoon on a courtesy visit. The British survey is presently berthing alongside at Factory wharf and she's is expected to sail from Valletta Port on Wednesday, Nov. 22nd. (18-Nov-2017)

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

The Italian Navy Andrea Doria-class destroyer ITS Caio Duilio (D 554) sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this afternoon on a courtesy visit. This is the first ever visit of an Andrea Doria-class destroyer in Valletta Port. The Italian destroyer is presently berthing alongside at Pinto-1 wharf and she has on board an NHIndustries SH-90A helicopter (MM81599/3-24). ITS Caio Diulio is expected to sail from Valletta Port on Friday, Nov. 17th (15-Nov-2017)

Sunday, November 12, 2017

The French Navy D'Estienne d'Orves-class corvette FS Premier-Maitre L'Her (F 792) sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this afternoon on a courtesy visit. This is her second visit in Valletta Port this year. The French corvette is presently berthing alongside at Wine wharf and she's expected to sail from Valletta Port on Friday, Nov. 17th. (12-Nov-2017)

Saturday, November 11, 2017

The Irish Naval Service Roisin-class patrol vessel LE Niamh (P 52) has sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this morning on a courtesy visit. This is her second call in Valletta Port this year. The Irish patrol vessel is presently berthing alongside at Pinto-3 wharf and she's expected to sail from Valletta Port on Wednesday, Nov. 15th. (11-Nov-2017)

Friday, November 10, 2017

A severe thunderstorm over the Maltese Island this afternoon has forced five aircraft en route to Malta IAP to divert to Palermo and Catania-Fontanarossa in Sicily, Italy and Tunis-Carthage in Tunisia.

SAS Scandinavia Airlines Airbus A320-200N (SE-DOZ), operating flight SK-1845 between Stockholm-Arlanda (Sweden) and Malta IAP, diverted to Palermo. The flight then continued to Malta reaching destination with a delay of nearly five-hours on its original scheduled time.

British Airways Airbus A320-200 (G-GATL), operating flight BA-2644 between London-Gatwick (U.K.) and Malta IAP, diverted to Catania. The flight will then continue to Malta reaching destination with a delay of nearly three hours.

Ryanair Boeing B737-800 (EI-FRW), operating flight FR-2411 between East Midlands (U.K.) and Malta IAP, diverted to Catania. The flight then continued to Malta reaching destination with a delay of nearly three hours.

Ryanair Boeing B737-800 (EI-DYF), operating flight FR-7796 between Marseille (France) and Malta IAP, diverted to Catania. The flight then continued to Malta reaching destination with a delay of 2-hrs 20-mins.

Air Malta A320-200 (9H-AHR), operating flight KM-515 between Vienna (Austria) and Malta IAP, diverted to Tunis. The flight then continued to Malta reaching destination with a delay of nearly 2-hrs 45-mins.

Thursday, November 9, 2017

In line
with its growth stategy Air Malta announced direct services to three
destinations; Casablanca (Morocco), Venice (Italy) and St Petersburg (Russia)
for summer 2018.

The
destinations were announced today during the World Travel Market (WTM), the
annual leading global travel trade show being held in London between the 6th
and the 8th November.

Casablanca

Air
Malta will inaugurate a new twice weekly scheduled service every Monday and
Thursday marking a return to one of the most important cities of Africa and the
largest city in Morocco, Casablanca. The Air Malta is resuming its services to
Casablanca after an absence of around ten years.

KM-724
Malta 1630 – 1755 Casablanca

KM-725
Casablanca 1855 – 2355 Malta

Venice

Air
Malta will re-start flying to Venice, one of the world’s most romantic and
enchanting cities, as from the 26-Mar-18. The Maltese airline will fly
to Venice-Marco Polo airport with a twice a week every Monday and Saturday.

KM-638
Malta 2045 – 2230 Venice

KM-639
Venice 2320 – 0110 Malta

St
Petersburg

Air
Malta will start operating a twice weekly scheduled service to St Petersburg,
Russia, every Wednesday and Saturday as from the 29-Mar-2018. The flight
schedule to the city will complement the three times weekly service to Russia’s
capital, Moscow, which will increase to a four weekly flight schedule in peak
summer.

Malta
International Airport closed off summer, which stretches from April until the
end of October for the aviation industry, with 4,249,321 passenger movements.
This translates into an impressive increase of more than 600,000 passenger
movements over the same comparable period in 2016.

Growth
in passenger numbers in the summer months was observed in parallel with an
upturn of 13.3% in aircraft movements and an increase of 16.1% in seat capacity, mainly stemming from an enhanced flight schedule for the
season. Moreover, at 85.0%, seat load factor for the seven-month
period remained unchanged from last year.

The
top drivers of passenger traffic to Malta IAP were the United
Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France, and Spain. Growing by 9.6% over last
year, the U.K. accounted for 1,025,055 passengers, which is almost a quarter of
the airport's total traffic for summer. The other four markets all registered
double-digit growth ranging between 14.0% and 32.5%, with
Spain's increase being the most noteworthy.

Having
welcomed over 5.2 million passengers for the year to date, the airport's focus
has now shifted to achieving the best results for winter. On the last
weekend of October, the airport unveiled its new winter schedule featuring
66 destinations, five of which are new.

Traffic
through Malta International Airport in October grew by 15.4% to reach
596,648 passenger movements, on the back of a 14.7% increase in
aircraft movements and a 16.4% increase in seat capacity. (Source: maltairport.com, 8-Nov-2017)

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Spanish
low-cost airline Volotea announced it will operate two new routes from and to
Malta from Nice (France) and Bilbao (Spain). The new routes will increase the number of
passengers the airline will carry to 32,300 from and to Malta next year with
230 flights.

The Bilbao routes
will start operating once a week from March next year with more than 7,300
passengers. The Nice flight enters into the airline’s
schedule from April 2018 with once-a-week flights which are expected to carry
some 7,000 passengers. The two routes will be added to the Bordeaux
route in France which Volotea is already operating from and to Malta.

Mr E. Friart, a director of Volotea, stated
that the Nice destination will provide an opportunity to the Maltese to visit
the maritime city in the south of France which boasts of picturesque scenery,
while Bilbao is a destination in the north of Spain, renowned for food and
unique scenery in the region. (Source: tvm.com.mt, 7-Nov-2017)

Monday, November 6, 2017

An Air Malta flight from Rome was delayed for several hours
today after Italian police received a threat about the flight, the airline said
this morning.

Flight KM-613 to Malta was grounded as Italian authorities
searched the plane and checked passengers' luggage. No information was given
about the type of threat received.

The flight was due to depart at 10.10am and arrive in Malta at
11.35am. It finally departed mid-afternoon and is expected to land at Malta
International Airport at 4.45pm.

"The safety and wellbeing of our passengers and staff is of
paramount importance," an airline spokesman said after the plane had been
given the all-clear. "We apologise for any inconvenience caused to our guests
due to circumstances beyond our control." (Source: timesofmalta.com, 6-Nov-2017)

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Ryanair launched today its new route between Malta IAP and Belfast (U.K.). The first scheduled flight, operated with Boeing B737-800 (EI-DYF), departed from Malta IAP at 1412lt (FR-1717). The return flight from Riga (FR-1718) landed at Malta IAP at 2207lt. Ryanair will be operating this new route twice-weekly, on Mondays and Fridays. (30-Oct-2017)

Monday, October 30, 2017

Ryanair launched today its new route between Naples (Italy) and Malta IAP. The first scheduled flight, operated with Boeing B737-800 (EI-DCL), landed at Malta IAP at 1656lt (FR-1722). The return flight to Naples (FR-1723) departed from Malta IAP after turnaround. Ryanair will be operating this new route twice weekly, on Mondays and Fridays. (30-Oct-2017)

Air
Malta's winter schedule which came into operation today is one of the busiest
for this period of the year in recent years.

The country's national
airline said that between now and the end of March the airline company will be
operating more than 110 flights a week to 19 destinations, which is four times
as much as last year’s operations. This increase will mean an additional 146,000
passengers added to the winter schedule.This winter Air Malta will be operating direct flights to/from: Amsterdam, Brussels, Catania, Comiso (from Dec. 17th), Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, London (Gatwick and Heathrow), Milan, Moscow, Munich, Palermo, Paris (Charles de Gaulle and Orly), Rome, Tel Aviv, Tunis, Vienna and Zurich.

Flights to Frankfurt in
Germany have been resumed as from today, a destination that had been dropped
last year, and flights to Comiso have also been added. Two daily flights will
be operated to Catania and London-Heathrow and there will be daily flights to
Brussels, Rome, London-Gatwick, Munich and Vienna.

Tourism Minister Dr
K. Mizzi said that to meet this ambitious schedule the airline will be
increasing its operational hours by almost 30%. Mizzi said the increase in
routes as well as frequency throughout the winter will support the Government's
efforts to decrease the seasonal trend in tourist arrivals. (Source: Air Malta & tvm.com, 29-Oct-2017)

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Ryanair launched today its new route between Malta IAP and Riga (Latvia). The first scheduled flight, operated with Boeing B737-800 (EI-DYF), departed from Malta IAP at 0707lt (FR-1726). The return flight from Riga (FR-1727) landed at Malta IAP at 1444lt. Ryanair will be operating this new route twice-weekly, on Thursdays and Sundays. (29-Oct-2017)

easyJet launched today its new route between London-Southend (U.K.) and Malta IAP. The first scheduled flight (U2-7431), operated with an Airbus A320-200 (G-EZPB), landed at Malta IAP around 1730Lt. The return flight (U2-7432) to Southend departed from Malta IAP after turnaround. easyJet will be operating this new route twice-weekly, on Thursdays and Sundays. (29-Oct-2017)

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

A Ryanair Boeing B737-800 (EI-DYF), performing flight FR-5228 between Berlin-Schoenefeld (Germany) and Malta IAP yesterday evening, had to divert to Catania-Fontanarossa (Sicily, Italy) after two missed approaches (RWY 31) at Malta IAP (wind shear). The flight then continued to Malta reaching destination with delay of nearly 2.5-hours on its original scheduled time. (25-Oct-2017)

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

A Turkish Airlines Boeing B737-800 (TC-JVA), performing flight TK-1369 between Istanbul-Ataturk (Turkey) and Malta IAP, had to turn back to Istanbul this morning for technical reasons. The flight was later operated by a replacement aircraft (Boeing B737-800, TC-JVE) and reached Malta with a delay of nearly five-hours on its original scheduled time. (18-Oct-2017)

With effect from March next year Air Malta will start operating scheduled flights to Ukraine. The agreement was concluded during a State visit by President M.L. Coleiro Preca to Ukraine, a country with a population of 45 million. (Source: tvm.com.mt, 17-Oct-2017)

Sunday, October 15, 2017

A number of Air Malta flights have been delayed by roughly half an hour after the Union of Cabin Crew informed Air Malta last night that it had ordered its members to start industrial action, an Air Malta spokesman has confirmed.

The airline confirmed that some flights had been affected but stressed that none had been delayed by more than 30 minutes, adding that it was currently holding discussions with members of the union. (Source: maltatoday.com, 15-Oct-2017)

Saturday, October 14, 2017

The United Kingdom's Border Force cutter HMC Protector sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) last evening on a courtesy visit. This is her eleventh visit in Valletta Port this year. The British cutter is presently berthing alongside at Coal wharf, and she's expected to sail from Valletta Port in three weeks. (14-Oct-2017)